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Much like how a sandwich that you get for free tastes better than any equivalent sandwiches that you had to fork over money for, games that you spend only a small amount of money on are usually more fun than one you paid full price for. Or is that just me? Perhaps it’s you as well. If so, here’s the bargain bucket. Dive in. For a constantly updated record of cheap digital entertainment software, I highly recommend you visit SavyGamer.co.uk.

MDK2HD – £4.80/€6.05/$7.50
That’s a serious commitment to just having letters and numbers for a game’s name. The “H” & the “D” stand for “High” & “Definition”, although they’re selling themselves short with that slightly disingenuous suffix, it’s not just got support for higher resolutions, it’s a total graphical overhaul, with shiny new models and environments. Adam thought the following:

MDK 2 has more style and personality than most games can dream of. It’s funny. It’s frequently frustrating. It’s more often exciting and breathless to play, and taking on the gigantic action puzzles and boss fights are rewarding battles to best. Most of all it’s a game confident in what it wants to do: have a laugh. Sure it’s sloppy around the edges, but it never really stops being a giggle. It’s a lighthearted sci fi comic book dream, and this HD re-release is a good a reason as any to return to its unique charms. It finally looks like the pulpy comic book it always wanted to be. Go on, have a go. You might just end up having some fun.

Quantum Conundrum – £4.99
Also registers on Steam and also probably UK only.
Since the Portal comparison is inevitable, I guess the thing that I should say is that this is no way near as immediately compelling as Portal. Portal, once I’d started I could not put down. Quantum Conundrum I got bored quite quickly, and haven’t gone back (yet!). It probably gets better as you get into it though. Or does it? Here’s what Mr Meer had to say about it:

A solid kernel of admirable intelligence and noble inventiveness is orbited by misfiring tone, ill-suited twitch challenge and seeming arbitrary design decisions that block organic, euphoric player experimentation in favour of unyielding square hole, square peg solutions. I can see the game it wants to be, the game it’s trying to be, the game it almost is. And that upsets me dearly, as sailing close to greatness but falling at critical hurdles always does.

Binary Domain – £7.49/€9.99/$9.99
A third person shooter where you play as Size Five Games’ Dan Marshall, shooting robots in Japan. John said these words about it when he wrote down wot he thought:

There’s an awful lot more going on here than in the average third-person shooter, while it falls miles short of Mass Effect. But then I never required it to reach that. Of the six or so characters that accompany you, two are vaguely interesting. And the story, in the final hour (of about 12 or so) finally becomes something a bit more novel, at last introducing an idea of its own, rather than recycling everyone else’s. But even this is bogged down in major decisions made in cutscenes (perhaps dictated by trust levels? I’ve no idea, and I’m buggered if I’m playing through it again to find out), and ultimately a really stupid and dull final moment.

The Witcher – £2.38/€2.72/$3.40
Someone going by the name “Kieron Gillen” did something called a “review” of this on a website than can only possibly be referred to as “Eurogamer”. He said things like this:

The new and improved package is increasingly attractive. There are still some rough edges, and moments of genuine drama are still undercut by how they’re performed, but this is an agreeably driven RPG in an agreeably ornate package. I also believe the developers’ continued support for the game and commitment to expensive improvements should be applauded.

Deal of the weekDeus Ex: Human Revolution – £4.99
Registers on Steam and probably UK only.
Everybody’s favourite home appliance throwing simulator. DXHR is first person game about shooting, hiding and talking in a future where biomechanical augmentations have eradicated all colours except black and gold from the visible spectrum, and it’s your job to save the day and watch cutscenes where your character does stupid shit. It’s quite good, and largely true to the spirit of the original Deus Ex, even if it’s slightly less ambitious and there’s a few significant stumbles along the way. For a fiver, give it a shot. Here’s wot John thinks.

I’ve been trying to purchase Quantum Conundrum since yesterday (not UK only, it’s 7.49€) but that website doesn’t work – It asks me for an address, but when I try to edit my profile details it goes into an infinite loop. I blame the monkeys in SquareEnix’s basement, I’m sure they do all the webdev work :P

You’ve been able to buy Startopia for ages. Like, since it got its budget re-release. Mastertronic have had it on their Sold Out store for years: link to mastertronic.com – £5, free postage to UK, a little postage fee anywhere else.

I don’t know, after starting a second playthrough of Singularity yesterday I do feel like playing a punchy manshoot, and Rage’s shooting is supposedly very solid. But I’ve sworn not to buy any more games (with the exception of Borderlands 2 because coop) for a long time (i.e. at least until the Steam holiday sale?) so I’ll be damned if I buy it. Got more than enough games.

It didn’t shock me for my first playthrough, but shooting isn’t that good. It lacks “hit”. I mean you shoot, you hit and you don’t feel like it except the little blood splash. You don’t have the “feedback” some games have.

I bought it on PS3 for a fiver or so. It’s a standard brown-tinged manshoot with dune buggy bits, which essentially reminded me of Borderlands, except not remotely funny and lacking the lizard-brain-tickling loot collection and massive gun arsenal.

The shooting is… OK? But I put it down some weeks ago and haven’t picked it up since.

It’s a very very solid and pretty man shooter with some fun outdoor sections, cool gadgets and is well worth it at that price, anyone who thinks it’s not worth playing should fuck off back to fallout three.

I disagree. It’s an unambitious game, with a little too much repeated content, but it’s gorgeous, has a cool post-apocalyptic setting with a lot of nice touches, has a variety of satisfying, impactful weapons, has smart and agile enemies, has some spectacular set pieces, and has a decent CCG minigame. I’ve not regretted my original purchase, and certainly would recommend it at $10-20.

If you buy both Alpha Protocol and The Witcher, you’re setting yourself up for a good 50 hours of modern roleplaying. The former offers the ability to be a quick-witted, infuriatingly smarmy git to everyone you see, and the latter is what Dragon Age failed to do.

Even for £2.99 it’d be a tortuous experience. Fairly excellent plot malleability, shit everything else. I mean, just appreciate the single good aspect of it from afar, don’t feel you have to endure it.

It’s really a lot of fun. Also, I know it has a reputation for being bugged, but I never had an issue until the day it just completely decided to stop working (in my second playthrough, and I blame D2D for that.)

OK, so first off, let me say that i enjoyed it a lot and it’s worth £3 of anyone’s cash. However….I had a stealth build, so had the ability to turn invisible for a few seconds. This came in useful in the level where you have to break into the CIA safe house without killing or KOing anyone. Only it didn’t, because the game requires you to lure someone to the basement for reasons that ONLY SOMEONE WHO COULDN’T TURN INVISIBLE WOULD USE. If you finish the level without this being done, it will get stuck on the loading screen for the next level. It took me ages to figure this out. Also, the somewhat anonymous level design lead me to save a very irritating male character instead of a not irritating female character, who I was then stuck with for the rest of the game. This is just a few of the things I had an issue with – I think it’s a game that tried to reach beyond it’s grasp, and so fell over on a few occasions. Rather that than any amount of FPS clones, IMHO, but if you want a game to just work” this isn’t for you.

GreenManGaming has several deals over the weekend. Firstly, there’s this code:
PCGMR-ALLIN-GREEN
Works once on any one game – I recommend a preorder, like perhaps Sleeping Dogs (Steamworks, knocks it down to $33 or so).
Secondly, today only they have a 20% off voucher for Dark Souls preorders (WHATB-IGJAW-SUHAV), also Steamworks.
Thirdly, tomorrow they will have a 25% off voucher for Darksiders II preorders. CROSS-OVERA-LREDY
Finally, 15% off Guild Wars 2 Digital Edition (-not- the Digital Deluxe): ROLLF-OR1D6-DMAGE

They also have some random games on sale, but I personally will only buy games on GreenManGaming that I can use away from their client, like titles that will register on another service I already use (Steam, Origin, Impulse) or that are MMOs that can be independently downloaded from the developer, like Guild Wars 2.

Reign is basically combining the strategic map of a Total War game with the real time (pausable) action of a Paradox game. I think it’s quite a good game, but it’s severely hampered by the fact that it’s set in an area of the world (Eastern Europe and Russia) that most people aren’t familiar with. Names of cities and towns can be VERY confusing. Also, combat is completely hands off like in a Paradox game, which is a turnoff for some people.

It’s a deep game, there’s no doubt about it. I recommend reading the manual before playing. I know, how lame. ;)

Thank you for replying. This sounds like it might be worth a look. I have been steadily moving towards more complex strategy games and the map/graphics in Reign look quite compelling for a strategy game of this caliber (e.g. a peer to Paradox titles). I appreciate it.

If you liked Fallout 3, or any of the modern Elder Scrolls (esp Oblivion), you’ll probably like New Vegas (same basic engine, though developed by Obsidian). I bought it at full price when it released, I’ve spent seventy hours on the game (according to Steam), and I regard it as time well spent. Twelve euros sounds like an excellent deal to me, but then I would have had to wait to have all that fun.

I love Fallout 2. I did not like Fallout 3. Loved Morrowind. Did not like Oblivion.

But I’ve heard a lot of good things about NV. I was mostly trying to figure out if it wasn’t listed in the Bargain Bucket because you can find it cheaper somewhere else or maybe it’s regularly discounted even more. I’m pretty sure I’ll pick it up before I go to bed… heh.

It wasn’t listed, because the deal wasn’t available when the Bargain Bucket was posted. (though I believe it was marginally cheaper during the summer sale)

New Vegas has the same basic gameplay from Fallout 3, but is overall far better in terms of content (both the amount and the quality of it). Judged on its own merits it’s a very good RPG, though sadly I can’t really say how it compares to Fallout 1 and 2.

It’s certainly a good deal for the price, though it might be easier to know whether to recommend it to you if you tell us what you didn’t like about Fallout 3.

Fallout New Vegas isn’t far better than Fallout 3, that’s a myth, but very alive for some reason (the same the hypes are possible, I think). They are very similar overall, and you can find many things which are better done in one or the other. It is far better than Skyrim though (I mean a PC version). It should be asked why one didn’t like Oblivion, but chances are that the person won’t like both Fallouts (and Skyrim) as well, because of many shared elements. And bugs.

I bought fonv:ue at steam sale thinking i would get over my hatred, and although the writing is better then usual, the rest of it reminds me of the same reason i hate skyrim/oblivion/fo3. I couldnt even play to the DLC that i wanted to see…and this is with a tonne of mods too.

I’m baffled by the lack of mention of the Gamersgate summer sale. New, steep discounts every day, and right now virtually every RPG on the site is 50% off to boot. This will go on for three more weeks, with a new genre discounted every week and new, deeper discounts every day.

Yes, some pretty sweet deals… picked up Dungeons Gold, Drakensang games (just baflled why I can get the expansion of River of Time but not the original, but hopefully that will be released to other countries sometime). The Last Remnant and Bioshock’s are pretty cheap as well if you haven’t got those.

I think we have to say it, Lewie is a man with more on his mind than Deals these days…

For my bargain hunting needs I’ve long since decamped to the Forums here and the Bargains Thread in particular – as well as following Savygamer’s RSS and a few other selected bargain hunting sites ofc.

What we should maybe consider is whether someone wants to take-on the task of rounding-up the Bargains Thread on a weekly basis – because all the information is in there, it’s just a matter of presenting it in a digestible form??